TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
> However, I have seen non-technical or non-competent writers (and manager and
> others) eaten alive by the geeks. Like a feeding frenzy. It happens
> regardless of the sex of the non-technical person. Unfortunately, I have
> been guilty of this behavior as well. Not something I like when I see myself
> doing it, but I am also a geek. It is part of our culture to dislike people
> who are not what they represent themselves to be. Geeks hate being misled -
> it feels like lying and in my experience, we geeks do not tolerate that from
> anyone.
>
To be fair to geeks (I call myself anthropologist to geeks, but don't
consider myself one), in my experience most of them will accept
someone's competence in another field as a reason for respect; the
expertise doesn't have to be in coding.
Nor do you have to be an absolute expert in the technology that they're
expert in. So long as you admit your level of knowledge, show respect
for theirs, and ask intelligent questions, most geeks are fairly
accepting.
The exceptions are usually insecure, either because they're young, new
to the job, or not very good. I've slapped down more than one cocky
young geek who decided that a non-coder was fair game by revealing
unexpected flashes of knowledge.
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- progeny -dot- com
"Rose bouquet, wedding band,
Their recipe for romance might have come out of a can."
- The Mollies, "I Don't Wanna Go to Bed"
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available 4/30/01 at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
Sponsored by DigiPub Solutions Corp, producers of PDF 2001 Conference East,
June 4-6, Baltimore, MD. Now covering Acrobat 5. Early registration deadline
April 27. http://www.pdfconference.com.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
